The present invention relates generally to a coin testing and separating apparatus of the kind commonly employed in modern vending machines. More particularly, the invention pertains to an improved detector mechanism for testing and separating coins on the basis of size.
The improved cradle mechanism discriminates coins which are essentially alike in size. This function of the cradle is accomplished before passing the coins to the acceptance passageway of the device.
There are some coins that have approximately the same diameter but have greatly different valuations. One of the difficult problems is to test these coins and permit only the coin of the true valuation to pass to the acceptance passageway. It has not been heretofore possible to provide a mechanism that would cooperate effectively with the cradle assembly to sense very small differences in coin diameters so that the spurious coin having only a very small difference in diameter size from the coin of true valuation, would be precluded from passing to the acceptance passageway.